


Bedtime Story

by Ladyanaconda



Series: Ni No Kuni II Anthology [5]
Category: Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (Video Game)
Genre: Bedtime Stories, Children, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Fatherhood, Gen, Heartwarming, Humor, Motherhood, Other, Regret, Siblings, Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-10 20:41:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18415475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladyanaconda/pseuds/Ladyanaconda
Summary: Sometimes one wishes to sweep their misdeeds under the rug and be done with it. Unfortunately for Mausinger, it's hard to keep doing that when his children have plenty of clues around them. If curiosity killed the cat, who says it can't kill mice as well?What a better way to divert attention than a good bedtime story?





	Bedtime Story

**Author's Note:**

> I made this one after I realized something: if Mausinger has kids of his own (he has to, technically, as he needs an heir eventually), I don't think he'd want them to find out about his past mistakes and would do everything within his power to keep them from finding out.   
> But given the circumstances, I think they would at least learn about Leonhard having been King before him. This would, in turn, raise more doubts.

"Daddyyy! Up!"

Mausinger sighed as a small head tackled against his leg. "Leon, I have no time to play with you." His four-year-old son ignored him and started pulling unto his coat. "Leon…"

"I'm bored!" Leon wrapped his little arms around his father's leg and buried his face into his thigh.

Sighing again, Mausinger momentarily put the paperwork aside to look down at his son. Even though he resembled Ratja more in the looks department, there were traces of him as well, most notably in his brown fur and currently-annoying stubbornness. "Why don't you go play with your sister?"

Leon stuck out his tongue. "Girls are nasty!"

"Oh, so your mother is nasty?"

"Nana! Mommy, not a girl!"

He raised an eyebrow. "She isn't? What is she then?"

"She's mommy!"

That didn't even make any sense, but then again Leon was still too young to understand certain things. He tried going back to work only to feel another headbutt against his leg. "Hey, Leon, why don't you go bother mommy?"

Leon shook his head energetically. "Mommy played with me yesterday."

"Then why don't you go steal some cheese from the kitchen? Surely Mrs.Tibbs won't mind."

"But you and mommy said not to grab cheese before dinner."

Damn, the boy was hard to trick. Like father, like son. "You can grab _one_ small piece this once, okay?"

"And a tart?"

"Don't abuse it, boy."

Thankfully, Leon insisted not further and left the study in a hurry before he changed his mind.

Mausinger couldn't help but chuckle. That boy was _so_ full of energy. He felt a little guilty for not being able to spend much time with him or Lilly, but duties are duties. Now he understood Leonhard's predicament back on the day, though admittedly his friend would sometimes make up an excuse to avoid working and spend some time with Evan instead. He was ashamed to admit he had always frowned upon it because it meant _he_ had to deal with all the work, but now that he was a father himself… Perhaps one of these days he should consider using that same tactic.

But for now and with no further interruptions, he went back to work.

* * *

Sneaking into the kitchen without being seen was not that hard. The problem was sneaking _out_ with his prize without Mrs. Tibbs noticing. She was sharp and already knew of his habit to steal pastries and treats from the kitchen. This time, though, he did manage to take a generous ration of cheese-daddy said only one, but it wasn't every day that he was allowed to have snacks before dinner-and sneak out into the royal gardens.

He went over to his favorite spot under the tree. Mommy would often bring them here when they were younger; she often said he and Lilly almost fell into the pond while trying to catch a butterfly once. Daddy tried to save them and _he_ ended up in the water in the process.

Speaking of Lilly, he found here there already, making crown flowers with Isabell. He liked Isabell. She might be a cat-girl, but she was also like a big sister to them. She spent time with them when mommy and daddy were too busy doing grown-up stuff. Indeed, she was the first to notice his presence and received him eagerly. "Hi, Leon, what do you got there?"

"Got cheese from kitchen!"

Lilly perked up her ears and reached out her hands. "Cheese! Gimme!"

"No, mine!"

"Now, now, Leon, remember what your mama said about sharing."

Isabell watched fondly as Leon pouted and gave his sister two pieces of cheese and she protested that he had more, to which he replied that she could go get her own. They might bicker from time to time, as all siblings often did, but they were actually very close; considering their lack of friends their age due to their… sheltered upbringing, it's natural.

With every day that passed, she swore they looked more and more like their parents. Lilly inherited her father's rat-like complexion, red eyes, and orange hair. Her features, though, were much more delicate, and her hair was long and straight with a few curls at the edges. Her fur was a combination of Queen Ratja's milky white with patches of brown. She was a sweet, curious yet somewhat feisty young girl who was always making improvised presents for her parents. Leon, on the other hand, looked more like his mother with notable traces of his father in him. His fur was a shade of brown similar to King Mausinger's with a white underbelly, short brown hair, and his mother's blue eyes. He was the more rambunctious and naughty of the two siblings; indeed, his favorite hobby was running around the castle pretending everything around him were monsters or drawing on the walls. In his last hunt, he had broken almost fifty vases two weeks worth of being grounded.

"Isabell, can we go out?"

"Huh?"

"To town. It's boring in here!" Leon whined. "Nobody will play with us."

"Mommy and daddy don't have time to play!" Lilly added.

Isabell hesitated. Gottonberg might be gone, but King Mausinger still had a few enemies amongst the grimalkin noble houses. "I don't think it's a good idea, children. I mean, your parents said you can't go out without their knowledge, and especially _not_ without permission."

"Pleasieee!"

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but…"

Lilly pointed at one of the tree's branches. "Look, Isa, there's a pink daffodil! Could you get it for mommy's flower crown?"

Isabell relaxed. As long as she could get the children to forget about going to town. "Sure! I'll be right back! She climbed up the tree-grimalkin have a knack for that-, and a few minutes later she came back down with said flower. "Here it is… Leon? Lilly?"

The children were gone.

* * *

 

They felt bad for tricking Isabell like that, but sometimes they just needed to get away from her to have actual fun. She's nice and usually fun to play with, but there are times when she's just as boring as daddy. While she climbed up the tree they scurried away towards the castle gates. It was a bit harder to sneak past the guards, but to their luck, they were momentarily distracted when they rushed to help a furless woman with her bags.

They looked around town in awe, taking in all the sights, from the people walking around or talking, to the chirping of the birds or the guards in patrol (and made sure to hide from the latter). Lilly even spotted a green higgledy, but it got away before she could get close to it. Aww, she wanted to play with it.

This wasn't exactly their first time outside the castle, but the previous times they had been too young to remember. Mommy one told them their first time outside was during a festival held in honor of the alliance with the other kingdoms, during which the other rulers visited Ding Dong Dell. Sadly, they were but a few months old at that time and so could not really remember much of it.

Both Lilly and Leon always found it odd that mommy and daddy never let them out of the castle for too long, if at all. They always had to be accompanied by an adult, usually Isabell and a guard. This caused them not to have many friends outside Isabell, their parents, a few castle servants and, of course, each other.

"What do we do?"

"Why don't we take a look outside the walls? I've always been curious about what's out there."

Lilly shook her head. "Mommy and daddy say it's dangerous. And if we get eaten by a manticore?" The idea of being eaten by a manticore or any sort of monster wasn't exactly appealing. Besides, there was _no_ way they would get past the guards posted on _that_ gate. "Why don't we go catch froggies?"

"Okay!"

With that, both children made their way towards the pond near the city gates. Catching frogs was their favorite game, especially during springtime and summer, when there were lots of them in the courtyard's pond. Daddy _hated_ it because they always got wet and dirty, and he always says it's not 'proper behavior' for a young prince and princess. Mommy was a bit more flexible, though there were times when even she didn't like them getting dirty.

After a good half-an-hour of catching and releasing frogs, getting half-soaked and a bit dirty in the process, the twins went to take a break by the fountain to watch the colorful fish. During the winter months, people often came to skate in the frozen water, or so they'd heard.

Lilly was the only one to toy with the fish, throwing little bits of cheese into the water and watching them go into a frenzy over it. Leon, on the other hand, looked up to their father's statue right in the middle of the fountain. Daddy looked nice, spreading out his arms in an almost welcoming gesture. A few meters behind it there was another statue, but this one depicted a stout, handsome-looking cat-man with a mane and royal garbs. This one was standing proudly, it's stone cape eternally flowing behind it, but there was a kind expression on the grimalkin's face. "Hey, Lilly, look."

"The statue behind daddy? It's a cat-man."

"Why would a cat-man have a statue?"

"Maybe he's a higher-up."

"We'd see him around when daddy is chatting with the other higher-ups." Lilly spotted an elderly lady walking by with some groceries. She had no fur, ears or tail. She was human. "Excuse me, miss human…"

The lady offered a kind smile. "Well, hello, dearies. How can I help you?"

"Who is that cat-man?"

"That's King Leonhard, the previous ruler of our fair kingdom before King Mausinger."

That name sounded familiar. Some people in the castle had mentioned it a few times before, not knowing they had been listening. Daddy and mommy had mentioned him sometimes too. This was the first time they had seen him, however. Before they could ask any more questions, Isabell arrived. She looked scared out of her wits. "Children, there you are! I've been looking for you!" She said, taking deep breaths of relief. "We should go back to the castle before your parents find out you're missing!"

The lady blinked. "Wait… You mean they are…?"

Isabell bowed her head. "I'm sorry if they caused you any trouble, ma'am!"

"Oh, no trouble at all, miss. They were just curious, that's all." The old lady bowed her head with an amiable smile. "It was nice speaking to you, your majesties."

That's why neither Leon nor Lilly liked people knowing who they were. Once they learned they were the kingdom's prince and princess, everybody around them would act differently: Too polite and pleasant, so much that it even felt… fake.

"Hey, Isabell, who's King Leonhard? That furless lady said he was the boss before daddy."

For a brief moment, they thought they saw Isabell looking nervous for a few seconds. "Well… Yes, King Leonhard was king before your father."

"How did daddy become king, then?"

"I'm afraid that's… grown-up stuff."

* * *

"Mommy, did you know mister Leonhard?"

Ratja froze for a few moments. A few seconds later, she said. "Yes. He was my boss for some time. He was a very good man."

"You had a boss?"

She giggled at Lilly's expression. "I wasn't always Queen, you know." She kissed her daughter's head. Good night, sweetheart."

"Good night, mommy."

The lights were turned off and mama left, but Lilly could not sleep. She couldn't get the cat-man out of her head. Why did nobody talk about him if he was such a good person? She wished she could read, but they were still learning the alphabet and it would be a while before she could look inside the books the answer the people wouldn't give her. Wait a minute. Daddy became king after him, perhaps he knows more than everyone else? Sometimes he did give that vibe, considering he tended to avoid certain topics when asked directly.

With this in mind, Lilly slid off the bed and quietly made her way into the hallway, but instead of walking towards her parents' bedroom she found herself walking towards daddy's working room. He usually stayed up late there doing grown-up stuff. The only bad thing was the stairs: she still didn't have the hang of climbing down. After a long descent, she finally came upon the familiar doors.

Like she thought, daddy was in there, reading over some parchments. He looked tired. _Very_ tired.

Mausinger lifted his head when he heard the door creaking open. "Lilly? What are you doing up so late?"

"I can't sleep, daddy."

He left his seat and scooped her in his arms. "Can't you? How curious, because from what Isabell tells me, you are a heavy sleeper."

"I'm not fat!"

"If you say so…" the rat king chuckled. "What's bothering you, sweetie?"

Lilly hesitated. "Do you know who Leonhard is?" She quickly regretted it when she noted her father's smile wavering somehow. But it was too late to take it back. "Nobody will tell me much about him, only that he was king before you."

He _knew_ this day would eventually come. His children would eventually learn about his old friend and former employer. There was so much they didn't yet know about, such as the century-old enmity between grimalkin and mouse-kin, Ding Dong Dell having been ruled by grimalkin long before him, and that he had actually taken the throne from Evan after…

He didn't want them to find out of his past mistakes just yet. Part of him was afraid they'd never see him again the same way when they found out what he had done. They were still too young to discern the whole thing, they were so innocent… But he also knew Lilly wouldn't stop looking into the issue until she got a satisfying answer. But how could he do so without revealing too much information?

He got an idea. "Lilly, how about I tell you a story?" His daughter's eyes lit up. She loved bedtime stories. Ratja and Isabell always told them interesting ones from books. The one he had in mind, though, was not in any book.

After checking on Leon, who was sound asleep in his own room, Mausinger went into Lilly's room and tucked her in. She looked so cute like this, holding her doll and innocently looking up at him. He silently cursed himself for being unable to do this as often. "Many years ago, there was a kingdom in a faraway land..."

Lilly listened to her father's tale intently. In said kingdom lived two species: the bird-like tengu and the lizard-like wyverns. Despite living together, the two peoples never got along. No one knew what sparked the conflict, but it spanned hundreds of generations, and this enmity was only further strengthened by the tengu's awful treatment towards the wyverns. The kingdom was ruled by a long line of tengus, all of which shared the birds' homophobic treatment towards their lizard neighbors, and the mentality became stronger thanks to the tengus having the crown and a pact with a powerful spirit that proved they were worthy to lead.

Lilly decided she didn't like the Tengu. "Why were they mean to the wyverns, daddy?"

"They were... different."

The story continued. The wyverns had no choice but to submit themselves to the awful treatment, but their hatred and resentment of the tengu only grew as years went by. One day, a little tengu prince was born. He was very different from the rest of his kind. Unlike many of them, he thought the wyverns should have equal rights to the tengu, but since he was a child he could do nothing to change the world just yet. He never gave up on his dream of reconciling both the tengu and the wyverns, however. As he witnessed all the injustice against the wyverns, his resolve only grew stronger.

One day, he met a wyvern who felt the same as him. This wyvern, in particular, had a hard life in the kingdom's less-developed areas; even though his family was the wyvern's own ruling clan, they had to live in awful conditions thanks to the tengu's poor treatment. The prince caught the wyvern stealing a piece of bread to feed the younger ones back home, but instead of calling the guards he bought an entire basket of bread for him to take home. The wyvern was initially wary of the prince's charity, but as time went on the two became friends. The prince would sneak out of the castle to help the wyvern boy take food and supplies to the wyvern's residential area.

Years passed, and the boys grew up into handsome young men. The old tengu king died, and so the prince had to take his place as ruler of the kingdom, hereby claiming the realm's guardian spirit. To his people's discontent and shock, he named his friend his chancellor as a first step to close the rift between the two species. A few more years passed, during which both friends worked hard to reconcile their respective people. Things seemed to be working out for the kingdom for some time as the racial tensions diminished little by little, especially when the tengu had a little prince of his own.

Now came the part of the story he dreaded, but he forced himself to continue. Mausinger took a deep breath. "But alas, the peace wasn't meant to last. A foreign sorcerer from a distant land sought to steal the magical bond between the tengu king and its guardian spirit, but since it could not use his dark magic to corrupt the king nor the chancellor, instead he centered his magic on a close friend of the wyvern, promising him power if he would help the sorcerer achieve his goal. And so, little by little, the wicked wyvern planted doubts of the king's goodwill and friendship into the chancellor's mind, leading him astray and convincing him he was only being used to keep wyverns in check and make things easier for the tengu..."

"And so, the chancellor and the wyverns started plotting to kill the tengu king and seize the throne for their kind. The chancellor would add little bits of poison to the king's food, and since they were so close the king never suspected anything. Instead, everyone thought the king had caught a mysterious illness that nobody could cure until eventually, the king passed away. With him out of the way, the wyverns…" he tried to find another word for coup d'etat. "Rose in arms on the day the king's son was to be crowned as king, successfully driving him out of the kingdom. With no one to stand on his way, the chancellor claimed the magical bond with the kingdom's guardian spirit, and with it, the crown, thus becoming the new king."

"Mad with power, the new wyvern king started a vendetta against the tengu for generations of mistreatment and discrimination while giving his own people fairer laws and political preferences. The tengu that didn't get to escape were driven from their homes and into the sewers and slums, just as the wyverns themselves had been before. Meanwhile, his treacherous friend, now the new chancellor, would manipulate him into doing his bidding through the use of dark magic by taking advantage of the king's hatred, insecurity, and resentment." By then, his fingers dug into the mattress as he remembered all the things he had done, but thankfully Lilly didn't notice.

"This went on for some time until the tengu prince he had chased away returned; in his exile, he had founded his own kingdom, and wished to sign a treaty with the wyvern king, the one who had usurped his throne. The wyvern, of course, initially thought the prince merely wanted to subdue his people yet again and tried to kill him instead. But before he could, the evil sorcerer finally made his appearance to steal the magic bond between the king and his guardian spirit; the way he had treated his subjects had caused the bond to grow weaker over time. The chancellor revealed his treachery, and instead of being rewarded, he was betrayed by his former master, who cast his soul out from his body, which would leave him on a vegetative state for the rest of his life. Once he had what he came for, the sorcerer departed, leaving the king and the prince with an angry guardian spirit running rampant, the means to control him gone."

"With the prince's help, the guardian was defeated, but it was a bittersweet victory… The young tengu brought his father's diary for the wyvern king to read… And he found…" He took another deep breath, trying to hold back some tears. "His old friend, the tengu king, had _always_ believed in him, and the trust and friendship offered to him were genuine. The realization that he had killed his patron and childhood friend for nothing broke the wyvern's heart, but before he could give everything up, the old tengu king's spirit appeared and asked him to finish what they had started, for even in death he still trusted him, forgiving the transgression against him and his son. The regretful wyvern promised him he would, and made amends with the young prince. The treaty was signed, and together the tengu, the wyvern, and their allies defeated the sorcerer, bringing peace to the world forevermore."

Lilly couldn't help but notice that in this last part, daddy had turned quite... withdrawn, and his eyes went briefly vacant, almost as if he were remembering something. "And they lived happily ever after?"

How he wished it was that easy, but he wasn't going to disillusion his daughter. "You could say so. The wyvern king met a beautiful lady, they married and had two little wyverns. It took him long years, but eventually, he achieved the peace between their two peoples he and his friend had dreamed of for so long." He smiled when Lilly yawned... "Okay, young lady, it's time to sleep."

"I'm not tired…" she protested.

"Right." Mausinger leaned down to kiss his daughter's forehead. "Good night, Lilly." As he was about to leave the room, he heard her calling for him softly.

"Daddy, the wyvern king… Did he ever feel better about what he did?"

Once again, she noticed his eyes becoming vacant again. A few seconds later, he smiled. "In time, he did."

Satisfied, Lilly cuddled against her pillows. "Good night, daddy."

He offered her another smile. "Sleep well, sweetheart." With that, he turned off the lights and closed the door. Lilly snuggled on the bed and fell asleep shortly after.

She'd have quite the tale to tell Leon in the morning.


End file.
